WRAP: FLYERS FALL IN FLORIDA, 2-1
Clinging to a 1-0 lead in the final seven minutes of the third period, the Philadelphia Flyers were unable to close it out and went down to a 2-1 regulation loss to the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center on Saturday night. The winning goal by Jonathan Huberdeau was scored with 1:06 left on the clock.
The Flyers wasted a stellar goaltending performance by Carter Hart, who made 34 saves and had little to no chance of stopping either late Florida goal. The Flyers also wasted 21 blocked shots in front of Hart, as the sacrifice went for naught in the end.
An early goal by Shayne Gostisbehere (5th) at 1:45 of the first period was all that the Flyers mustered on 35 shots against James Reimer. Philly had some opportunities to get a much-needed insurance goal, including a pair of power plays in the third period, but really didn't generate a whole lot of Grade A chances over the course of the game. When they did have looks at the net, Reimer had the answers.
Gostisbehere's goal came as he joined the rush as a trailer, took a pass from Jordan Weal and fired a shot from the left circle past Reimer. Scott Laughton got the secondary assist.
At various junctures during the first and second periods, the Flyers flirted with trouble due to poor puck management in dangerous areas of the ice. Hart erased several mistakes, or else the Flyers blocked the shots. Philly also got lucky a couple times as the usually on-the-mark Mike Hoffman missed the mark from prime shooting range. Philly did a fine job in the first period of aggressively killing off two penalties, including a 5-on-3 overlap.
In the third period, the Flyers generated their share of offensive zone time in the first half of the period. However, they continued to be unable to do enough with their bottom-ranked power play. On the latter one, Travis Konecny made an ill-advised decision to try to stickhandle into the offensive zone and lost the puck. James van Riemsdyk was called for hooking. Fourteen seconds later, Florida's 2nd-ranked power play went to work for the third time in the game.
The Flyers had gotten away with several attention-to-detail lapses over the course of the game, which resulted in Florida's most skilled players getting opportunities to make plays. Finally, Philly was no longer able to dance between the raindrops. A failed clear by Ivan Provorov was never recovered by the Flyers. Crisp puck rotation for Aleksander Barkov to Huberdeau to Hoffman at the bottom of the right circle gave Hart little realistic chance at a save, and Hoffman hit the target this time as he buried the puck in the back of the net at 13:16.
Still, Philly had a chance to preserve at least one point with a chance at a second. It wasn't to be, as Florida scored off the rush despite starting deep in their own end of the ice. This goal was largely on the Flyers' forwards-- specifically, the line of Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek -- who were beaten through the neutral zone and never arrived with any assistance on the backcheck. Radko Gudas then lost a positional battle and Robert Hà¤gg was left with way too much turf to try to cover.
Perfect passing between Evgenii Dadonov, Barkov and Huberdeau (who had a huge seam down the right wing) provided Huberdeau with a prime scoring chance, and Huberdeau scored at 18:54 of the third period. Now the Flyers trailed, 2-1, after playing from ahead most of the game.
The Flyers pulled Hart for a 6-on-5 attack. Reimer made a great late save on Giroux. The Flyers ran out of time to fall to 15-17-5. The defeat was Philly's 10th one-goal loss of the season and the 12th time the team has scored either zero or one goal in a game.
Philly's final game of the 2018 calendar year is in Tuesday in Carolina. The road trip ends on New Years Day in Nashville.
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PHANTOMS LOSE FEISTY 7-3 DECISION TO WB/S
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms went down to a 7-3 defeat on Saturday at the PPL Center at the hands of the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins. The game was a chippy, fight-filled contest that saw the two teams combine for 110 penalty minutes and lasted for more than three hours.
After a scoreless first period, the Phantoms briefly took a 1-0 lead on a Greg Carey power play goal (16th) before the Penguins struck back for three unanswered goals -- Ben Sexton (3rd), Jimmy Hayes (4th) and Teddy Blueger (12th) -- including Blueger's power play goal against the Phantoms' No. 1 ranked penalty kill.
The deficit grew to an insurmountable 5-1 by midway through the third period as Adam Johson (9th) and Blueger (13th of the season, 2nd of the game) struck for the Penguins. Reece Willcox's first goal of the season got the Phantoms back within 5-2.
Over the remainder of the game, the Penguins sandwiched empty net goals by Sexton (4th of the season, 2nd of the game) at 13:37 and Chad Ruhwedel (1st) at 18:20 around a T.J. Brennan goal (7th) for the Phantoms set up by Mikhail Vorobyev (9th assist).
The waning minutes of the game also saw multiple altercations and ejections, as did the middle portions of the first period after a fight was thrust upon Philip Samuelsson (resulting in Tyrell Goulbourne getting tossed from the game in his defense).
The Phantoms dropped to 4-1-1 under Kerry Huffman and 19-10-3 overall on the season.
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WJC UPDATE: DAYS 4 & 5
Canada 5 - Czech Republic 1: The Canadian side didn't really have their A game going for 60 minutes but still downed the Czechs but a comfortable margin despite getting outchanced in some junctures of the game. Flyers 2017 first round pick Morgan Frost collected two points -- a power play assist on the goal that made it 2-1, sending a puck from the right circle to the point for a shot that deflected home and, later a power play goal of his own, as he found a seam, received a tape-to-tape feed from Nick Suzuki and buried a shot into a half-vacant cage. Canada improved to 3-0-0 with a New Year's Eve (8:00 PM EDT, NHL Network) game against Russia looming to conclude pool play.
Sweden 5 - USA 4 (OT): It was basically a tale of 50 minutes of firm Team Sweden control of the game and then a furious four-goal comeback by the Americans late in the regulation to force OT. The 3-on-3 overtime saw outstanding scoring chances at both ends before Adam Boqvist won it for Sweden. Nick Poehling recorded a natural hat trick for Team USA during the comeback.
Ersson won Player of the Game honors for Sweden despite giving up four goals in less than half a period leading into the OT (he finished with 25 saves on 29 shots); an honor probably pre-selected midway through the third period when he was still flirting with a shutout and was rock solid whenever challenged.
Sweden opened the door a crack for the Americans with a pair of needless penalties. Both resulted in power play goals, as the Swedes' lead was sliced from 4-0 to 4-2. On the first, Ersson read the play and got over in time but didn't get the five-hole closed in time as Mikey Anderson beat him on a one-timer from the right side. The other three goals -- all by Poehling -- weren't on the goalie, although the final one was not an impossible save despite a really nice rising shot.
The second USA goal was unstoppable; a power play goal from point blank range by Poehling as a result of great puck movement by the USA. The third goal, scored on a 6-on-5, came after the Swedes went into a severe shell and over-relied on blocked shots in front and saves from Ersson without ever really having a chance to clear the zone. Finally, the Americans scored on a point-blank back-door goal by Poehling.
The game-tying goal, also a 6-on-5 tally, came with 37 seconds left on the third period clock. Flyers defense prospect Adam Ginning, who had played a really solid game in his own right until late, had a bad giveaway directly to fellow Flyers prospect Joel Farabee. The Flyers' 2018 first-round pick then fed Poehling, who snapped off a rising shot that beat Ersson upstairs.
Ersson authored back-to-back excellent saves in OT. Then Farabee, after having the game on his stick but hestitating just long enough to get his shot attempt blocked out of play, had a miscue of his own. The Swedes won the game as Boqvist scored on a counterrush.
Farabee finished with one assist, three shots on goal and an even plus/minus over 25 shifts (22:17 TOI). Noah Cates had four shots on goal and drew a key penalty on the Swedes, but finished at minus-two in 26 shifts (14:41 TOI). Jack St. Ivany spent virtually the entire game on the bench after going minus-two against Kazakhstan; he did not see a single shift until the t third period when he saw the ice for a single 30-second cameo. For Sweden, Ginning skated 30 shifts (18:33 TOI) with one shot on goal and an even plus/minus.
With the victory, Sweden won its 47th straight game in WJC preliminary round play, dating back to a loss on Dec. 31, 2006. More important, the Swedes put a stranglehold on first place in their pool, with only a game against Kazakhstan remaining on the round-robin docket.